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5th out of 25 books
—
6 voters
The Best Story
The best story is one that comes from the heart The library is having a contest for the best story, and the quirky narrator of this story just has to win that rollercoaster ride with her favorite author! But what makes a story the best? Her brother Tim says the best stories have lots of action. Her father thinks the best stories are the funniest. And Aunt Jane tells her th...more
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
May 29th 2008
by Dial
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The Best Story is about a little girl who finds out about a story writing contest and the winner get to ride a roller coaster with what happens to be her favorite author. She looks to her family for help in deciding what to write her story about. She learns that the best story you write has to be your own and has to come form your heart. Many young readers and writers can relate to this story because many people have trouble deciding what to write about. The characters in this book are believabl...more
Here is a subject matter kids can relate to. It is the story (a funny one, at that) of a young girl who tries to write the perfect story for a school-wide writing contest, one that may win her a day with her favorite author. The trouble is, she gets conflicting advice from every member of her family. Dad says to add humor, her brother tells her to add action, her aunt convinces her to add emotion, and her cousin persuades her to add romance. Despite multiple revisions, the story doesn’t seem qui...more
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Spinelli, Eileen. (2008). The Best Story. A. Wilsdorf. New York: Scholastic, Inc.
Literary Genre: Picture Storybook
A young girl (unnamed) is inspired to enter the Red Brick Library’s writing contest. Her brother suggests writing a story with action, her father advises having plenty of humor, her aunt thinks the best stories make you cry, and her teenage cousin wants to see some romance. Bright watercolor paintings illustrate the wacky story the girl keeps modifying to satisfy all the suggestions...more
Literary Genre: Picture Storybook
A young girl (unnamed) is inspired to enter the Red Brick Library’s writing contest. Her brother suggests writing a story with action, her father advises having plenty of humor, her aunt thinks the best stories make you cry, and her teenage cousin wants to see some romance. Bright watercolor paintings illustrate the wacky story the girl keeps modifying to satisfy all the suggestions...more
The book is great for encouraging children to write whatever they want! It is about a girl who wants to get 1st place in a writing contest at her library in order to win a ride on this amazing ride on a fun rollercoaster. Her parents, cousin, aunt, etc. tell her that she should write in in cerain ways. Her Dad says the best story would be funny, her aunt says it would make people cry, her cousin says it can't be a good story unless it's romantic. After re-writing her story over an over the girl...more
This charming tale is about a young girl’s hope of winning first prize by writing the best story. Writing it is not quite as easy as she thinks it will be. She ends up receiving unsolicited and solicited advice from her family. Everyone has a different idea about what makes a best story. Is it action? Is it humor? Is it romance? Should all these ideas be in her story? Her imagination runs rampant as she explores these ideas. Eventually, she finds the right path to the best story by writing from...more
The Best Story by Eileen Spinelli is about a girl who gets advice from her family on how to write the best story so she can win a contest. After multiple revisions she discovers that the best writing comes from the heart. This book would be good for beginning a creative writing assignment. I would give each student a piece of paper cut in the shape of a heart and have them list and draw things that are important to them. Afterwards the students could pick one of their topics and write a story ab...more
The Red Brick Library was having a contest for writing the best story. So the main character heads home and asks her various family members what makes a story the best. She incorporates each idea, including lots of action, humor, and romance. She ends up with a jumbled story, until her mother tells her the the best story is the one that comes from the author's heart. She sits down and writes a completely new story about the things she loves, and no longer worries about whether she will win the c...more
An aspiring young writer wants to win the Red Brick Library contest. Attempting to follow advice from family members, she writes stories with lots of action, lots of humor, lots of sad things, lots of romance. None of these stories work out well. Finally she writes her own story--about her two best friends and her cat and snow days and strawberry jam and fireworks and rainbows and bike rides. We don’t know whether she wins the contest or not, but she loves her story—and so do we!
This story is about a girl that wants to participate in the school's writing contest. She is trying to write the best story ever and asks her family members for input on what makes a story so good. They ask for action, romance, and much more. When she takes their advice the story just doesn't seem right. The last person to give advice says to write what she thinks is best. Good story to show how you can do things on your own with just a little help from someone.
A sweet book with a sweet (and true) message. Makes me think of an Austen quote I once heard. At least, I think that's who said it. Anywho. I like that the pictures are consistent throughout and full of fun. I like the suggestions. I like the characters' personalities. I think this is better as a read-on-your-own or a lap-read with a school-age child. Some younger might get it. And it's never to early to teach the message.
This book would be great to show children the creative process. Children in the younger grades some times have a hard time not using examples that the teacher gives or using ideas that others give to them. In the story the little girl is writing the best story ever and everyone has different views of what that is. And in the end the best story is what she feels, what is in her heart to write about.
A girl wants to win first prize in a writing contest, but she can't think of anything to write. She gets advice from all of her family members about what makes a good story, but finally learns that the best story is the one that comes from her heart. I think this would be fantastic to read at the beginning of the year when introducing writer's workshop. K-3
A young girl wants to win a writing contest so she can ride the roller coaster with her favorite author. Father, brother, sister and Auntie make suggestions and the rewrites make the story more and more silly until finally, her mother offers the best advice for "the best story."
Good story to inspire students to be writers. It shows them that it might not be easy but if you stick to it you will produce something thats totally yours. Even if family tries to help and gives you advise on what they like. Stay true to yourself and the story will be good.
This could be used as an example for plagiarism for younger kids
When a contest at the local library offers a prize for the best story, a girl tries to write one using her family's suggestions, but her story does not seem right until she listens to her heart.
When a contest at the local library offers a prize for the best story, a girl tries to write one using her family's suggestions, but her story does not seem right until she listens to her heart.
Within the context of an engaging story, this book reminds readers of some very important story elements: action, humor, emotional appeal, and romance/relationships. But most of all it reminds young writers to write about things that they care about in their hearts.
Great story for all ages. It would be a great one to share at the beginning of the year when introducing a writing project, as well as when talking about plagiarism. Great illustrations to go along with a great meaning! One I will definitely tuck away to share!
After reading this one day to my class my students were so excited and ready to get busy writing their own amazing masterpieces. This book can help students understand that not all books have to have action, romance, and comedy to be a good book but as long as they come from the heart the story will be good. It is important to note throughout your read aloud that the stories she writes have a lot of imagination and it would be good to add that authors have great imaginations!
A great book to introduce narratives. The story is about a girl who is writing a story to win a contest to meet her favorite author. She writes several stories but none felt right until she writes a story about herself.
Whatever your age, it's great to be reminded that when writing a story, the best one comes from your heart. This book is cleverly written and the illustrations are whimsical. Excellent picture book.
39 months - A lesson for all kids who are asked to write a story for school. Write what you know and are most familiar with not other people's ideas of a good story. I bet this one could come in handy many times in the future.
This is a decent story about writing from your heart. It is almost the same book as Arthur Writes a Story, but without the charm of Marc Brown's characters.
This an awesome story of inspiration. To inspire someone to do their very best is the greatest piece of advice-and this is exactly what happens in this story.
3rd & 4th--Read-Aloud. Great book for mini-lesson on the importance of writing about what you love. Also discussed genre.
A great tale that emphasizes that since you cannot please everyone, the best story is your own, the one told from your heart.
I liked this book until the last page. It's entirely too didactic for my taste. The lesson was already implied.
This a great book to teach the importance of when writing a narrative you should write about what is important to you.
I could use this book to talk about use of punctuation stylistically. Also about brainstorming and the writing process.
I really enjoyed tho book. It would be a good one to use to get the kids motivate to write their own story.
I use this at the beginning of the year when introducing writer's workshop and creating an idea list.
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Eileen Spinelli, wife of famed children's author Jerry Spinelli, is an award winning children's book author from southeastern Pennsylvania.
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